It's my first post on the forum. I'm 30 years old and have played guitar now since I was around 11 or 12 years old. My introduction to Jazz, really came from being exposed to standards such as "Beautiful Love" and "My Funny Valentine", I had heard Django Reinhardt's music at the time, his later stuff from the fifties, but for some reason or other I guess the timing wasn't right. Since my teens I've played in various metal bands over the years, and this was the style that I played mostly, writing songs for the bands that I was involved in.

These last couple of years I really became fed-up of metal and the culture associated with people within this genre. I started to listen to guitarists that I liked such as Holdsworth and Di Meola, and this slowly led to me becoming more immersed into the world of jazz again. As a result it's really given me a renewed love for my instrument, and I have the same enthusiasm for it, as when I first started playing.

Discovering the Jazz Manouche style has been a complete revelation for me, I've listened to players such Bireli Lagrene and also Stochelo Rosenberg. I really admire the skill at improvising so many of these players have. Previously I'd been more used to the picking approaches of jazz fusion players such as Al Di Meola, as such I use an Ovation guitar for that very reason. I do notice that there is a different picking approach to Gypsy Jazz, as I started to learn this way of playing. What i wanted to ask you guys, what kind of guitar would you recommend for someone that is new to the style such as myself? I've been looking at Gitane guitars, which are very reasonable in price, but someone recommended to me that i wait and purchase one by the luthiers DuPont.